In Camera

Trying to choose a suitable play on words for the title of this post – with the intention of taking the theme about cameras that commenced here and was extended here to its (quite probably il)logical conclusion… it occurred to me to wonder for the first time in my 58 years as to the origin of the phrase ‘in camera’ – and how it came to mean what it does.

Thank goodness for the InterWebNet! I found this on a most useful site titled Daily Writing Tips:

“The word we use for a “picture-taking device” comes from Latin ‘camera’, “an arched or vaulted roof or room.” The English word chamber, “room,” comes from the same Latin word.”

The link from the domed room to the clever digital device that we now take for granted is the camera obscura – again from the Latin. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the following definition:

camera obscura [L.; lit. ‘dark chamber’].   a. Optics. An instrument consisting of a darkened chamber or box, into which light is admitted through a double convex lens, forming an image of external objects on a surface of paper, glass, etc., placed at the focus of the lens.

There are still a good number of Camera Obscuras in the UK, possibly the best known of which is on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. I have no idea if there are any in Canada but I would love to hear of such.

The expression ‘in camera’ thus literally means “in the room” – the inference being “privately” or “secretly”. When – for example – a judge calls opposing barristers (attorneys) to meet him “in chambers,” they are meeting ‘in camera’.

Oh yes – I decided to order the Fuji X10. It should be here early next week!